Last night my friend Tim and I went to see Billy Hector Band at John & Peter’s. Here’s a random picture of Tim from a blues picnic a few years ago…. Not at all related to the show, but Tim’s wife Bryn always likes to point out that I’m Tim’s oldest friend (I’m really not that old). We’ve known each other since first grade.
I’ve seen Hector play two other times, both at J&P. I was hooked/mesmerized the first time I saw him. It’s well-worth the $10 cover. On stage, Hector is a no-nonsense type of guy. You can tell he’s just there to play music. Aside from saying “Let’s continue,” there is almost no banter between songs, and very little acknowledgment that there’s even an audience (he did pander and mention New Hope in one of his songs). Sadly, it was a bit of a slow night in New Hope, and there probably wasn’t more than a dozen people there watching him play. He did interact with one woman… she heckled him a few times to play Freebird. He playfully flipped her the bird and said, “there’s your Freebird.” He’s not one to really work the crowd. If I remember, I think the first time I saw him, he went on late, made no introductions, and just started playing. This makes him a perfect fit for John and Peter’s Place.
A bit about John & Peter’s… it’s a low-key bar of the dive variety in New Hope, PA . They have a decent beer list, the staff is always friendly to me, and they land some decent musical acts. Look around at the walls and you’ll see signed pictures from Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Tiny Tim, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Norah Jones, and Clarence Gatemouth Brown… The place is a gem here in Bucks County.
The stage is small and musicians sometimes hit their heads on the ceiling. Intimate is an understatement. As I’m writing this up, I’m thinking I should probably do a separate post just on J&P (for now you can read their history page here).
As for the Billy Hector Band, there’s more than a few videos of them available on the youtubes… I didn’t take any from last night. Most of the videos I’ve watched don’t do him justice and tend to be heavy on his funkier stuff. Last night’s songs were a mix of funk, slide blues, a little rockabilly, and just good old rock. He’s described his songbook as “Funky Rockin’ Blues.” Last night he opened with a solid instrumental that featured his signature slide playing. A song or two later he moved in to “Fake ID”
After showcasing his slide work, Hector played a lot of funky blues rock songs like “Old School Thang”- with straight up solid blues solos.
As much as I liked the show, his mic was too low for the first set – we could barely hear his singing. His second set had more covers in it (can’t remember which Beatles song he did), and while they were good and had his own take on the songs, he definitely seems more comfortable in his blues element.
Unfortunately, it hadn’t occurred to me to write about the show until tonight. If I had thought about it sooner – like before going to the show, I probably would have drank less, and paid closer attention to the sequence of songs and styles. Then again, I might not have been able to just sit there and enjoy watching him kill it on his guitar.